SerendipityHappens

Same thing happened to me.. I had surgery on March 13th.. I lost 14 pounds after surger and then I stalled pretty much the ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL.. I lost only 3 pounds the whole month and those were toward the end. I even GAINED a few pounds at one point. My body is over its little freakout and I've lost 14 pounds so far in May. Just hang in there. It's not easy but you just have to trust that your body will settle down and realize that you aren't giving up and it will start to comply!

I enjoy juicing and I was told not until 6 weeks.. and to ESPECIALLY avoid citrus until 6 weeks because it can interfere with stomach healing. Right now I'm doing low carb... which is kind of hard to juice while low carb, but I will juice up some kale and pour the juice in my sugar free lemonade. Getting in veggies can be difficult with the sleeve so juicing is a great way to get the micronutrients from the veggies without having to eat a huge plate of greens. Also, juicing only takes out the insoluble fiber (the cellulose) you still get all the soluble fiber in the juice.

I initially fell in love with Alvarez. but upon more research realized that there were MANY competent surgeons in Mexico. I ultimately decided on the Cabrera/Valenzuela team and had my surgery at MiDoctor Hospital in TJ. I booked through mexico bariatric and paid $4,500. It was an excellent experience. I believe the cost now might be $4700 though.

My feet are a tiny bit narrower but still the same length...

It's not only to shrink the liver.. he wants a combination of smaller liver and less visceral fat.. if you're an apple you likely have a lot of visceral fat that can make it hard for him to have enough room to get the instruments in for a laproscopic procedure. If you lose some of your visceral fat, then after he blows up your stomach with the gas, he'll have more "air space" in there to move around without so much fat in the way.

That's right! I met the 100 pound mark AND I'm only four pounds to my mid point. I was so excited about this that I went to the NewBalance store to treat myself to a new pair of walking shoes... and I allowed the awesome cute young sales rep encourage this 260 pound, 41 year old woman into a pair of RUNNING shoes and he pointed me in the right direction to study up on proper form to avoid injury (www.goodformrunning.com)... I downloaded the couch 2 5K app and tried day one today.... LOL, I only made it 1/3 of the way through... which represents a grand total of just three minutes running but it felt GREAT (once I could breathe again)... I'll keep trying it three or four days a week until I can complete the entire session, then move on to the next level. My goal is to run albeit very, very slowly, the Halloween 5K fun run this year. What a difference a hundred pounds makes!

I think it comes from fear that a slow loss will turn into NO LOSS EVER AGAIN and they'll be stuck being 250 pounds and eating 600 calories for the rest of their lives. Stalls mess with your head.. even when you KNOW that the stall will break, it still messes with you.. I was sleeved on March 13th 2013... For the ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL, I lost three pounds THREE POUNDS???? So soon after surgery... All the folks who had surgery the same time as me it seems are losing 5 pounds a week... and MAYBE stalling for a week or two and then back at losing at a break neck pace...... and I can only lose THREE pounds in a WHOLE MONTH???? of course the stall eventually broke like I knew it would, but it was a very trying time. I'm never going to be a "fast loser" and I'm OK with it as long as the scale keeps going in the right direction.

The skin is the most difficult aspect for me.. I have bingowings, a pannus, wrinkly thighs and my CALVES are already wrinkly and breastcicles... and I'm only midway through my journey.. My weight loss has not been that fast.. about 2-3 pounds a week.. I'm just not blessed with resilient skin,,, and I've been fat my whole life. I'm saving fervently for plastics!

Starvation mode is real.... kinda sorta.. We don't need to really concern ourselves with that until we are close to goal weight.. As you lose all your fat, and then you don't increase your calories, that's where starvation mode, or more accurately "efficiency mode" can kick in.. but right now... you're not going to be in efficiency mode because you body will get the energy it needs by burning up your fuel stores. Most people who give diet advice and try to scare people about "starvation mode" are talking to people 10-20 pounds overweight, not those of us who are 100-200 pounds overweight!

Well said. AMEN!!!!!! Enjoy the preop diet.. A lot of people dread it at first, but I found mine to be very empowering and confidence building! You got this!

I've always been the sort to just pay the price on the sticker... It wasn't until I met my exhusband that I learned that price can often be negotiated... He even once negotiated the cost of a root canal and crown for me.

LOVE IT! This whole AF thing has me perturbed... I totally understand clothing stores having range of sizes they cater to 5-7-9, petite sophisticate, Lane Bryant, etc.. I also understand that unless you are a niche store, you will only carry up to a certain size...(usually a 16 or XL) NO PROBLEM. My only problem with AF is that they are making the statement that the fat girls (and let's face it, TEENAGE GIRLS shop there, not WOMEN) are not "cool enough" to wear their clothes. HMMMM..... how out of touch can they be? Uh... my baby sister was a two sport varsity athlete and team captain, student body officer.. AND the freaking HOMECOMING QUEEN... but that's not "cool enough" for AF because she was also a size XL during highschool??? Disgusting.

If she is an organized and committed sort who will make sure she gets her protein in and takes her vitamins, then it could work well for her.. If she has a meal plan, that's great, there will be plenty of food appropriate food for her to choose from. Honestly if she's ready psychologically for the surgery then I see no reason to wait another year. She'll be changing her routine as she enters college anyway, so why not just get a new fresh start and not start any new bad food habits like so many do when they start college.... she's already heavy.. does she REALLY need the freshman 15 added to it? (or in my case the freshmen 50!)

I'm still a foodie.. The BEST part of having the surgery is I can buy really expensive ingredients because I don't need much. Scallops, shrimp, gourmet cheeses.... It's AWESOME! It took me a while to become mentally satisfied with my small plate of food, but I'm used to it now and yes, a bite or two of each thing DOES satisfy me now. It didn't at first.. I'd want to cry because I WANTED more.. I was USED to more. but I'm only two months out and I'm already content with my portion sizes so it really didn't take me long to adjust. It's AMAZING how much of my eating was driven by hunger. I still get hungry.. but it's not constant and it's easily tamed by an ounce of really decadent cheese.... before surgery it would have taken a freaking BLOCK of cheese.

Basically there are companies in the US who will help you on your journey. A Lighter Me, Mexico Bariatric Center, Ready4Achange, Medical Tourisim co among others, are all different companies that will arrange for your treatment and for you and make sure you are taken care of. You pay the booking agency and they pay the doctor/hospital/hotel, arrange ground transportation. Also, there are some doctors who don't use any booking agency and do all of the arrangements in house for you. For better information, Visit the "mexico self pay" sub-forum on this site.. just go to the main page here and scroll down. Tons of information there

Hospital gown all the way.. just bring a little something for underneath just in case.. I loved my hospital gown, it went to mid calf and wrapped all the way around and then tied on the side so it wasn't uh, "drafty" in the back. Of course it was MADE for bariatric patients so all 290 pounds of me fit in there comfortably! Also it had all the slits and holes necessary for them checking vitals/putting the drain through, etc.. Also incisions/drainsite can ooze a bit even through the bandages so why get your own stuff oozed on when you can just ooze on the hospital gown!

I kind of hold being a "slow loser" as proof that this surgery was really necessary for me. I'm eating 850-1050 ultra low carb (less than 20 net carbs) calories a day, with an active job on my feet 7 days a week plus extra exercise and losing 1-2 pounds a week right now. I am just over two months out and down 24 pounds from surgery day and 94 pounds from my highest weight. In the past I would have grown so frustrated and given up by now.. But now, I can be more patient because I'm not STARVING AND MISERABLE.

Yes, I had a drain. I was a bit nervous about having one, but the more I researched it, the more I WANTED the drain anyway....They removed it before I left the hospital so I only had it in for two days. It didn't hurt and I didn't even feel it when they removed it. Everyone on my floor, no matter which doctor they had, had a drain. oh, and I did NOT have a foley during surgery. That was my biggest concern.. I didn't want a catheter. Dr Valenzuela told me she never uses them for the VSG surgery because the surgery is so short.

I had contractions in my stomach for about a week after surgery.... The first few days were at times quite intense, but after that they were only mild uncomfortable until they disappeared completely at around the one week point.

Starting in the third week I stalled for a month. Sucked but stalls are normal. Now I'm back to losing again! YAY!

I was about that far out when I went through the "OMG, WHAT did I just DO????" phase. It didn't last long but it sure took me by surprise... I mean after months and months of preparation and planning, I didn't expect to feel that way post op. All I kept thinking was, "OMG, what have I done? This can't be undone now.. and the vast majority of my perfectly healthy stomach is now rotting away in some Mexican biodump" I'm now exactly two months post op and extremely happy with my surgery. Portion sizes are finally starting to feel normal and I'm used to the vsg eating habits now (like not eating/drinking at the same time, chewing food well, etc)

If you are allowed coffee, you can add half a scoop of Protein powder into an 8 ounce cup of coffee. It's DELISH! Also one of my favorite things is cottage cheese/jello mousse puree a cup of cottage cheese in a blender to get out the bumps. Make sugar free Jello (I use 1/2 cup boiling Water and 1.5 cups cold water it works just fine) pour liquid jello in blender with the cottage cheese.. blend on high.. A bit of unflavored Protein Powder can be added as well for an extra boost.. It's a nice dessert.

Here's the link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/diet-soda-health_b_2698494.html It's a rather sensationalized blog post making claims based on a study when the study actually only shows association and nothing causational. It's really an article against artificial sweeteners. It demonizes soda in particular, but there's nothing special about the artificial sweetener in soda that makes it any different than when the artificial sweetener is used anywhere else... including crystal light, most of our protein shakes, or sugar free jell-o.... Actually I use JayRobb protein powder because I don't WANT artificial sweeteners every day and the Jay Robb uses Stevia.. I usually will choose just a plain cottage cheese when what I really want to do is mix it with SF Jello and make a mousse with it... I pick and choose when I'm going to consume artificial sweeteners because I personally believe they SHOULD be limited. I just don't single out ONE source of artificial sweetener as being any worse than any other.

I'm two days shy of my two month mark and I have lost 23 pounds since surgery day I was 290 on surgery day and today I am 267. During the three months leading up to surgery I lost 45 pounds so I wasn't expecting super dramatic results since my body was already used to eating at a large calorie deficit.. and I was able to eat well after surgery so I was back up to 800-1000 calories a day pretty quickly.

I was in the hospital for two days post op and I walked for about 5 minutes every 90 minutes or so while I was awake. For the next week after that, I watched a LOT of TV and walked for 5 minutes in between each show. I also did point and flex exercises with my legs..The threat of DVT petrified me.